LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Michigan House of Representatives set aside a full session Tuesday to mark 25 years since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, honoring the nearly 3,000 people killed that day and the first responders who ran toward the danger.
The session opened with a prayer from Pastor Eric Jones of Valley Family Church in Portage. State Rep. Ron Robinson, a Marine Corps veteran, led the Pledge of Allegiance, and First Sgt. Andrew Choilier of the Michigan National Guard sang the national anthem.
Brig. Gen. Matthew Eichberg of the U.S. Army spoke about how small a share of Michigan’s population actually serves as police, firefighters or paramedics: roughly 1.8% are licensed police officers, less than 0.2% are firefighters, and less than 0.3% work in emergency medical services. He said that makes it easy to take those people for granted.
“We must care for the living,” Eichberg said. “We have to visit, we have to call, we have to support the firefighter who still can’t breathe, the soldier who still can’t sleep.”
Lawmakers read the names of six first responders who died on the job over the past year: Sgt. Adam Amrosey of the Lincoln Park Fire Department, Patrick Trout of the Detroit Fire Department, Chief David Haverdink of the Hamilton Fire Department, Chuck Redmond of the Flint Police Department, Deputy Joe Schein of the Coldwater Police Department, and Emily Barker of the U.S. Forest Fire Service. The House held a moment of silence for those six, plus the 42 Michiganders and thousands of others killed on 9/11. Families of Redmond and Haverdink attended as guests of Reps. Martis and Smit, and state Rep. Steve Frisby led a traditional firefighter’s bell ceremony in their honor.
The most personal moment came from Capt. David Nadeau of the Monroe Township Fire Department. Nadeau, a 33-year fire service veteran, drove to Ground Zero the night of the attacks and spent about a week there helping search through the wreckage.
“I have never seen so many body bags in one place,” Nadeau said, describing what he found.
Nadeau told lawmakers he now has stage four stomach cancer, and that federal health officials have confirmed it’s connected to the time he spent working at Ground Zero.
“I’ve been diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer,” Nadeau said. “This is all related to the World Trade Center and the job that I did there when I was there for seven to eight days.”
His diagnosis is part of a much bigger pattern. Nadeau said a federal health program that tracks roughly 145,000 9/11 responders and survivors has now recorded more than 9,400 deaths from illnesses tied to Ground Zero, more than the 2,977 people who died in the attacks themselves.
That toll is getting new attention in New York this month, too. Ahead of the anniversary, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani released nearly 170,000 pages of city records on Ground Zero air quality, saying they show officials knew the air was dangerous even while telling the public it was safe. The mayor said inspectors found asbestos “nearly everywhere” they tested, and that people were misled into believing it was “safe to breathe in toxic air.” Nationally, nearly three times as many people have died from 9/11-related illness as died in the attacks, a reminder of why the anniversary still carries weight in statehouses and city halls alike.
Nadeau ended his remarks by urging people to hold onto the unity that followed the attacks.
“We were not Republicans or Democrats, nor liberals or conservatives,” Nadeau said. “We were simply Americans.”
